marcusbacus
New Member
Hi all, first post in here, can be a little longer...
I currently have a 19G tank (I'm used to measures in metric system - I'm from Brazil - so I might give some incorrect data sometimes, it has 72 litres), and the fishes are: a couple of dwarf gouramis, a couple of rams, 4 ottos, 3 corys (punctatus), 3 rasbora maculata, 9 cardinal neons and 4 tetra rodostomus (hemigrammus bleheri) and also a neritina zebra snail. I have a lot of plants too of several sizes. I also have 2 other small betta tanks.
Yesterday I noticed that the colisa was making a bubble nest, and didn't pay much attention until it started to grab pieces of leaves and floating plants (I have plenty of some small plant which I don't know the name - no, not riccia or java moss or these common ones, it's something tiny, I was told they are Lemna sp.). Earlier this morning when I went to feed them the bubble nest had turned into a building! It had the bubbles, the leaves, and it now had the shape of a semi-circle, with about 1 inch of it being out of the water like a nice "house". Not so much later I saw the couple "doing" it. Or almost I think. I keep watching it for a while, but things only happened definitely much later, almost in the evening (at least at this time I could see clearly the brown eggs).
Now into the real question: I left them doing what they had to do, and when I came back about 2 hours later, I noticed the male fighting with the neons (!) and the rodostomus, trying to keep them away from the nest (the rams and others weren't bothering the colisas at all). The actual egg layering hadn't happened then (happened like 5 mins later!) and I could see the neons attacking the eggs that hadn't floated yet like crazy! The rodostomus were doing the same, but not as frenetically as the neons. I tried to distract them with some food (it was time for food anyway) but it didn't work for too long, it seems that the eggs were more teasing.
Can the fishes specially the neons eat the eggs like that? I am really expecting that the fry will be eaten in a few days, but the eggs? The neons looked like they were going to explode but they kept looking for more, I'm afraid that they can have problems eating like that. I couldn't keep watching more because it was almost time for the lights to be turned off, and I think I should better let them calm down. It wasn't like they were eating the eggs directly off the nest, but they seem to be grabbing anything that was left uncovered by the male. For the rodostomus, it didn't make much of a difference, but the neons' bellies were huge!
I just had a brief look at the tank about one hour later after that and it seems that they were all much calmer then, but I couldn't see everybody.
I currently have a 19G tank (I'm used to measures in metric system - I'm from Brazil - so I might give some incorrect data sometimes, it has 72 litres), and the fishes are: a couple of dwarf gouramis, a couple of rams, 4 ottos, 3 corys (punctatus), 3 rasbora maculata, 9 cardinal neons and 4 tetra rodostomus (hemigrammus bleheri) and also a neritina zebra snail. I have a lot of plants too of several sizes. I also have 2 other small betta tanks.
Yesterday I noticed that the colisa was making a bubble nest, and didn't pay much attention until it started to grab pieces of leaves and floating plants (I have plenty of some small plant which I don't know the name - no, not riccia or java moss or these common ones, it's something tiny, I was told they are Lemna sp.). Earlier this morning when I went to feed them the bubble nest had turned into a building! It had the bubbles, the leaves, and it now had the shape of a semi-circle, with about 1 inch of it being out of the water like a nice "house". Not so much later I saw the couple "doing" it. Or almost I think. I keep watching it for a while, but things only happened definitely much later, almost in the evening (at least at this time I could see clearly the brown eggs).
Now into the real question: I left them doing what they had to do, and when I came back about 2 hours later, I noticed the male fighting with the neons (!) and the rodostomus, trying to keep them away from the nest (the rams and others weren't bothering the colisas at all). The actual egg layering hadn't happened then (happened like 5 mins later!) and I could see the neons attacking the eggs that hadn't floated yet like crazy! The rodostomus were doing the same, but not as frenetically as the neons. I tried to distract them with some food (it was time for food anyway) but it didn't work for too long, it seems that the eggs were more teasing.
Can the fishes specially the neons eat the eggs like that? I am really expecting that the fry will be eaten in a few days, but the eggs? The neons looked like they were going to explode but they kept looking for more, I'm afraid that they can have problems eating like that. I couldn't keep watching more because it was almost time for the lights to be turned off, and I think I should better let them calm down. It wasn't like they were eating the eggs directly off the nest, but they seem to be grabbing anything that was left uncovered by the male. For the rodostomus, it didn't make much of a difference, but the neons' bellies were huge!
I just had a brief look at the tank about one hour later after that and it seems that they were all much calmer then, but I couldn't see everybody.
Keep up the good work 
